Date:         Tue, 13 Apr 1999 18:14:30 -0400
Reply-To:     "Fitz-Randolph, Douglas" <dfrandolph@TALKAM.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Fitz-Randolph, Douglas" <dfrandolph@TALKAM.NET>
Subject:      Alternator light on - this is normal? Survey says... Nope!
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

Thanks to all who responded to my questions about whether my alternator was
beginning to fail (see below). The responses I received all included phrases
like "this is normal", "You can safely ignore this problem", and "This is
called 'normal operation'". Taking your unanimous advice, I ignored the
light and headed south for the weekend...

Well, on Sunday at about 5 PM my alternator light came on while driving
north on I 91 near New Haven, CT. As I was still 4 hours from home, this
posed a bit of a problem. My van was also completely packed with stuff, so
there was no room to sleep even if I did find a likely repair shop/parts
store somewhere to camp out at. So after $54 for a Motel Six room, a morning
of calling repair shops who couldn't get to me until Wednesday, $52 for a
new voltage regulator, $40 to install it, the better part of a day wandering
around some suburban shopping mall-ridden hell with my slightly frazzled dog
- and a day off from work that I couldn't spare -  I made it back home.

So I think the moral of the story might is that while your alternator light
coming on like I described (below) might be "normal operation"... it also
might not.

Doug Fitz-Randolph
Yarmouth, ME
dfrandolph@talkam.net
'90 Syncro

original message:
Similar to Greg Hamburg, my battery/alternator light stays on when I start
the engine of my '90 syncro. (Not the OXS light, though.)  When I first step
on the gas, the light goes off and stays off until the next time I start the
engine.  The light will not go off unless I rev the engine slightly - I've
waited for about a minute. This started happening about a week after I
replaced my instrument cluster with one from an '88 (or perhaps '89) with a
tachometer, which my "non-GL" didn't have. The new panel also added an OXS
light, which I also didn't have before. I'm making the following
assumptions...

1) That the alt/bat light starting to come on until I first step on the gas
coinciding with the new instrument panel install is just that - pure
coincidence.

2) That the light coming on is an early warning sign that my alternator is
beginning to fail.

I'm planning to take a long drive this weekend, and I'm wondering if I
should pick up an alternator just in case - or even replace mine altogether
- before departing. Also, if I don't have to replace the alternator in an
emergency situation, I wonder if anyone can point me to a good source of
info about testing/rebuilding alternators. I've seen the replacement
brushes/bearings at Bus Depot, and that seems like a far more economical way
to go if it will fix the problem.


dfrandolph@talkam.net


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